Hybrid work is becoming increasingly popular and HR tools are being compelled to evolve rapidly. The pandemic required everyone to work remotely, which identified businesses that could facilitate working from home as society slowly returned to normal.
Not only did the pandemic cause businesses to realize the possibility of hybrid working, but it also exposed that employees are happier working from home, with only 8% of employees wishing to return to the office full time. So, it seems likely that hybrid working is the ideal business model for your workforce.
But how can you adapt to this new approach? Keep reading to find out how access control and HR tools support the hybrid work model.
What are the benefits and challenges of the hybrid work model?
Before we discuss the technologies helping businesses adapt to hybrid work, it’s essential to acknowledge the strengths and weaknesses of a hybrid work model to evaluate where support is appropriately needed.
Some of the benefits of a hybrid work model include the following.
- Increased employee satisfaction.
- More interested applicants for hire.
- Reduced environmental impact from traveling.
Some of the challenges posed by a hybrid work model include the following.
- A dispersed workforce, which places limits on communication.
- A need for safety in the workplace.
- Ensuring there are ways to reserve office space and meeting rooms.
The rest of this article will discuss how HR integrated with access control can help you overcome these challenges posed by a hybrid work model.
How can access control be integrated with HR tools?
A great starting point when planning your business automation is thinking about how your commercial security solutions integrate with other tools that can help your HR department meet employees’ needs for the new work model.
HR is harder to manage with a dispersed workforce. These integrations can help close the gap and connect your employees to their HR needs.
Employee Wellness Surveys
You can integrate wellness surveys with access control door locking systems. As a result, employees can be required to fill out a survey on their mobile before accessing the office. Likewise, you can provide surveys on the following areas to help your hybrid work model thrive.
- Emotional Wellness: You have a duty to care for your employee’s emotional wellness in the workplace. By providing mental health surveys, your HR team can identify the need for a wellness retreat or mental health seminar to promote a culture of emotional health in the workplace.
- Covid Symptoms: You need to ensure that employees are safe when working in the office. You can do this by providing surveys about covid symptoms that employees must complete before accessing the building to ensure that symptomatic employees work from home.
These tools will help your HR team to reach employees when they visit the office and become aware of their needs while promoting health and safety in the workplace.
Occupancy Management
When your employees are working in your commercial office building, your HR team needs to ensure that there is no overcrowding. The pandemic identified overcrowding as a hazard that can cause the spread of germs at work.
By installing occupancy management software with your access control system, you will be able to restrict access so that overcrowding does not occur.
Similarly, the occupancy management tool will provide you with information detailing each room’s occupancy throughout the day to ensure no social distancing regulations are broken.
Smart Desk Systems
Your HR team needs to provide a way for employees to secure a working space in the office for when they plan to come in. You can do this by using smart desk systems.
These provide a floor plan of your office displaying available desks, booked desks, and who has reserved each desk.
This way, your employees will reserve a desk for their in-office days and can even select a desk close to their colleagues, friends or working teams.
How to plan your hybrid working security strategy?
You can plan your hybrid working security strategy by following specific steps.
Step 1: Identify your security needs.
Is your workplace secure? Does your current security strategy protect your physical and digital assets? How well equipped is your workplace to reduce the risks of coronavirus? Each building’s security needs are different, and you will need to analyze the gaps in your current security strategy.
Step 2: Install access control.
To protect your physical and digital assets, you should consider installing access control using mobile technology. That way, your employees can gain access without inconvenience. Your access control system will act as the basis for your building security strategy.
Step 3: Use necessary integrations.
You can strengthen your security strategy by installing cybersecurity integrations with your video feed. You can also support your HR’s approach to the hybrid work model by providing wellness survey integrations and occupancy management.
Summing up
Hybrid work is the future of business work models. If you plan to move to a hybrid work model, you should be aware of newer technologies. As a result, they can help your HR team adapt to the new challenges posed by hybrid working.
Consider installing access control with HR tools integrated to ease your transition into hybrid working.
